A 19-year-old man who allegedly supplied a deadly dose of fentanyl to a Jurupa Valley teenager missed a court hearing Thursday, prompting a judge to revoke his bail.
Sammy Bryan Estrada of Riverside was arrested in October 2023 following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of the boy, identified in court documents only as “K.T.”
Estrada is charged with second-degree murder and two counts each of transportation of controlled substances for sale and possession of illegal drugs.
He was slated to appear Thursday before Superior Court Judge Gail O’Rane for a preliminary hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice, but when his case was called, the defendant could not be found, according to court minutes.
O’Rane vacated the hearing and ordered the revocation of Estrada’s $1 million bond, but she did not immediately sign a bench warrant for his arrest.
The defendant’s whereabouts were unknown.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Liebrand, on the afternoon of July 24, 2023, deputies were sent to a residence in the 6400 block of Etiwanda Avenue in Jurupa Valley to investigate reports of a comatose youth.
Despite first responders’ attempts to revive him, K.T. was pronounced dead at the scene, Liebrand said.
He said an autopsy revealed “the teen died as a result of fentanyl poisoning.”
“Investigators worked to identify the person responsible for selling the fentanyl that killed the teenager,” the sergeant said. “As a result of their efforts, the suspect was identified as Sammy Estrada.”
There was no word on how the defendant and victim were acquainted.
An arrest warrant was obtained, but when deputies attempted to serve it on Estrada on Oct. 11, 2023, as he sat in his vehicle at a property on Miller Street in Riverside, “he fled the area at a high rate of speed” and couldn’t be located, according to Liebrand.
Nearly two weeks later, the defendant was spotted driving in the area of Murrieta Hot Springs and Whitewood roads in Murrieta, where he was taken into custody without incident.
“During a search of Estrada’s vehicle, evidence indicative of narcotic sales, which included suspected counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, was located,” Liebrand said.
The defendant has no prior documented felony convictions.
Since February 2021, the District Attorney’s Office has charged more than 30 people countywide in connection with fentanyl poisonings.
In November 2023, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34-year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman.
Public health statistics show there were 550 known fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 9% increase from 2022, when there were 503. Data from 2024 has yet to be published.
Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels. It’s 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old.